Clearance
by Diresquirrel
Summary: Jack Carter asks Jo a question on a particularly dull day. One shot.


I don't own any of these characters. Neither do I own Buffy or Eureka!

* * *

Jack Carter was leaning back in his chair, pondering the unusually slow day in Eureka. Nothing out of the ordinary for Eureka was happening. Not even a parking ticket to hand out. His paperwork was done and his deputy was glancing through gun catalogs.

"Jo, I've been wondering for a while now," Jack began, "are you the Slayer?"

The look on Deputy Lupo's face was priceless. She was completely, one hundred percent off her guard.

"_You know about Slayers?_" she asked, truly surprised at the question.

"I was responsible for transporting some of the Initiative civilians after the charges were filed," Jack said. "I was fully briefed about the whole thing. My clearance is current."

"Oh, Initiative? Really? I'm glad you were on our side of that fiasco. When I heard about it, the special forces girl in me wanted to really kick some ass," Jo said, picking up a knife to clean. "But, me? A Slayer? Nope."

"Huh, I just thought it could explain why you're so strong," Jack said. "And obsessed with weapons."

"Nope, I'm a Watcher," Jo said, putting the knife back in her drawer.

"Really?" Jack asked, a little confused. "Aren't you a little…not British for that?"

"Yeah, the Council wanted somebody here in case of emergencies," Jo explained. She gave him a funny look. "Why'd you ask now?"

"Well, I was just trying to figure out the whole Slayer/Watcher thing here in Eureka," was Jack's reply. The sheriffs were distracted by the sound of three cups of Vincepresso falling on the floor.

_"You told him!_" Zoe accused Jo. "You told him that I'm a Slayer."

"No," Jo said slowly as she went back to her gun catalog, flipping a page without looking at her young charge. "But you just did."

Suddenly, Jack Carter was leaning over his daughter, his hands in his pockets. "_Soooo_…Zoe Carter is a Slayer. When were you going to tell me?"

His blonde daughter looked up at him with the indignantly that only a teenager could manage. "Planned on Never! You freaked out about one thing, this would just be worse."

"Is this why you're really here?" Jack asked.

"Well…part of it," Zoe admitted. "The Council wanted a Slayer here just in case of supernatural. They had a problem with high tech super villains back in Sunnydale. The last thing they need is some warlock getting its hands on some of the gadgets they cook up around here. I got chosen because I already had a legit reason to be here." She gave him a look. "And no, Mom doesn't know."

"I was wondering about that," Jack said. "So, you '_running_' in the middle of the night is really you out on patrol?"

"How do you know-_SARAH!_" Zoe hissed, cursing the name of their house.

"Yeah exactly," answered her father. He turned back to Jo. "So you've been in on this from when?"

"Since you left her here in the cage the first day," Jo said, not even looking up from her catalog. "Do you think I should go with the camo scope, or the matte black one? They're basically the same otherwise."

"Camo," Jack and Zoe said in unison.

"So when did this happen?"

"When Sunnydale happened," Zoe said, feeling more confidant that her father wasn't just flipping out again.

"_Six years?_ You mean to tell me you've been a Slayer for _Six years?_"

"_ohmigod_, Zoe! You're a Slayer?"

Turning towards the door, Douglas Fargo stood grinning from ear to ear.

"Oh, _Fargo!_"

"Don't worry, my cousin told me all about them," Fargo said as he rushed inside and closed the door behind him. "Actually, he gave me a robot to see if I could fix it. It's helped me a lot with my AI work. Some of it went into the reprogramming of SARAH after the whole house hostage thingy."

Jo's watcher training went into overdrive. "Andrew's your cousin?"

"No," Fargo said. "Xander's my cousin. My Mom's a Harris. She doesn't drink as much as the rest of her family, though, ergo the still living braincells."

"Does everybody in this town know about Slayers and the supernatural?" Zoe asked, a little surprised.

"No, I think it's just us," Fargo said. "Most of the scientists around here wouldn't believe it. It's too out there for them." That little statement had Jack rolling his eyes.

"Oh, that reminds me," Jo said. "Zoe, someone reported people hanging around the old Weather Trailer Park and Cemetery, but Henry couldn't trace any heat signatures. I'm guessing vamps. We should take a look tonight."

"Wait, you really patrol around here?" Fargo asked. "Note to self: stay indoors more often at night. Well, it's a good thing I made SARAH vamp-proof."

"Vamp-Proof?"

"She has an internal vat of holy water that she mists as they walk in the door, even if they're invited. I buy it in bulk, " Fargo said. "If something's affected, she hits it with lasers."

"You still have lasers in my house?" Jack asked grimly.

"It's a safety precaution!"

"Annnyways, Jo, we should totally take out the vamp nest tonight," Zoe said. "I've been itching for some action for a while."

"Is it scary that I'm actually happy she's talking about staking vampires?" Jack asked Fargo.

"A sign of dementia, yeah," answered Fargo. "You're taking this far too well."

"You're right. I think I might be in shock."

* * *

"Carter, we've got experiments that need to take place and you're 'inspection' is in the way," Nathan Stark said, a group of scientists cowering behind him. "What is going on here?"

Jack glanced behind him to the Eureka Weather Trailer Park. It was built to simulate the effects of hurricanes on coastal, low income communities. No one actually lived there, so it was a perfect hideout for those who bump in the night. Jo and Zoe had decided to clear the place out. Fargo had designed a new flame gun for Jo and special hidden armor for the both of them. Struggling to keep a VERY wide grin off his face, Jack looked the head of GD in the eyes.

"Sorry, Stark," he said, "But that's classified."

The look on Stark's face was priceless.

Fargo glanced between them and shrugged. "Sheriff Carter, you sure you should be _this _happy about that?"

Before the bespectacled scientist could finish his statement, Stark was on the phone with the general, obviously not pleased.

Sheriff Jack Carter just looked over his should and grinned at the head of Global Dynamics. "Just tell the general it's a little problem with gangs on PCP."

"Gangs on PCP?" Stark repeated, a little confused. The general was suddenly speaking in a much more worried tone. "What do you _mean _I don't have clearance?"

"Come on Fargo, let's see what mobile SARAH can do," Carter said before turning towards the trailer park.

**"_FARGO HAS CLEARANCE AND I DON'T?"_**


End file.
